Training from Hell/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A character undergoes psychotically difficult training.

  • Straight: Alice seeks out the training of the mighty Men-Tor. His training involves attacking her while she's off-guard and having her work out in strenuous situations.
  • Exaggerated: Men-Tor throws Alice at a mountain to make her stronger.
  • Justified: Alice is going off to fight Emperor Evulz, who won't hesitate to kill her in battle. Therefore, her training needs to be just as hellish as the actual battle.
  • Inverted: Wax On, Wax Off
    • Hard Work Hardly Works
      • Alternatively, it's Men-Tor who gets put through the wringer because Alice is difficult to train.
  • Subverted: Alice is expecting a tough training session from Men-Tor, but he just makes her do something inconsequential and simple.
  • Double Subverted: ...but that's just part one of the training. The second part is much more rough.
  • Parodied: At the outset of the training, Men-Tor forces Alice to fill out a last will and testament. "Why's that?" "...No reason. Just some legal issue."
  • Deconstructed: The hellish training doesn't make Alice any stronger. It does, however, injure her severely, potentially resulting in a Game-Breaking Injury that may or may not be permanent. As a result, Emperor Evulz succeeds in his plans to Take Over the World.
  • Reconstructed: The hellish training regimen serves to weed out those whose commitment is less than perfect. Sending in "heroes" with no real idea of what they're getting into is a good way to get a lot of the world's best and brightest killed. The real, less intensive training (relatively speaking) follows the brick wall entrance exam.
    • The course is designed with input from doctors and other experts in sports medicine, with a medic constantly on standby to evaluate the trainees and pull them aside if anything goes wrong.
  • Zig Zagged: Alice's training is simpler than you'd think...but it's just part one of the training. Part two is much rougher, but it isn't as bad as part three.
  • Averted: The training is what you'd normally expect.
  • Enforced: "We need to show that this Men-Tor character has a few screws loose! Let's have him make Alice undergo some serious training!"
    • "We need to show that what Alice is up against won't be easy, so she needs to train hard!"
  • Lampshaded: "Why is this training so hard?!"
  • Invoked: "Your enemies will not hesitate to kill you. If you don't find out during my training, you'll find out sometime."
  • Defied: Alice refuses to train any more until she's shown more respect, and it turns out that the Secret Test of Character was being confident enough to tell Men-Tor what an asshole he is.
  • Discussed: ???
  • Conversed: ???

As part of your Training from Hell, you must go back to that page, and edit the entry using only your tongue.

Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Training_from_Hell/Playing_With?oldid=1513769"